Khaberni - A senior source in the Saudi Ministry of Energy reported today, Thursday, that the kingdom's vital energy facilities have been subject to multiple recent attacks, including oil and gas production, transportation, and refining facilities, and petrochemicals and the electricity sector in Riyadh, the Eastern Region, and Yanbu Industrial, resulting in a disruption of a number of operational processes in key facilities within the energy system.
These attacks included one of the pumping stations on the vital East-West pipeline, leading to a loss of about 700,000 barrels per day from the pumping volumes through the line, which is the main route for supplying global markets during this period, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
The Manifa production facility also came under attack, leading to a decrease in its production by about 300,000 barrels per day of its production capacity, while the Khurais facility had previously been targeted, leading to a decrease in its production by 300,000 barrels per day, resulting in a total decrease in the kingdom's production capacity by 600,000 barrels per day.
The attacks extended to key refining facilities, including the SATORP facilities in Jubail, Ras Tanura refinery, SAMREF refinery in Yanbu, and Riyadh refinery, directly impacting the exports of refined products to global markets. The Ju'aymah processing facilities were also damaged by fires, affecting exports of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and natural gas liquids.
The continuation of these attacks leads to a shortage in supplies and slows down the pace of their recovery, reflecting on the security of supplies for beneficiary countries and contributing to increased volatility in the oil markets, negatively impacting the global economy, especially with a large portion of operational and (emergency) reserve stocks depleted, affecting the availability of reserves and limiting the ability to respond to this supply shortage.
